Whenever we don’t know an animal’s full history, we tend to assume the worst. That means we often suspect that a dog who cowers has been abused, when in fact that may not be the case. Sadly, many dogs are abused, but not all the ones who act terrified of new people and new things have suffered in that way. Concerns about past abuse have come up so many times during consultations that I felt compelled to address the issue this week in the blog I co-write with Professor Con Slobodchikoff.

I think there are many animals who people suspect have been abused that luckily did not suffer that fate. I wish it were true of all the cowering animals out there. I’m hugely in support of working to prevent animal abuse and of helping the animals who have been so badly treated. Do you have a pet you think shows signs of having been abused? If so, does it lighten your heart to consider that your beloved family member may not have endured such mistreatment?

Karen B. London, PhD, is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist and Certified Professional Dog Trainer whose clinical work over the last 17 years has focused on the evaluation and treatment of serious behavioral problems in dogs, especially aggression. Karen has been writing the behavior column for The Bark since 2012 and wrote The Bark’s training column and various other articles for eight years before that. She is an adjunct professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University, and teaches a tropical field biology course in Costa Rica. Karen writes an animal column, The London Zoo, which appear in The Arizona Daily Sun and is the author of five books on canine training and behavior. She is working on her next book, which she expects to be published in 2017.